Reapers of a feather
by Don Socrates
Summary: Who's compatible these days? Only one way to find out. This story WAS an all out accepting OC story but I've just received the last one, but hopefully you can still enjoy the story as it comes :)
1. Venice

**[A/N: So here's how things are going to happen. If you want your OC to appear in this here story, you have to PM me or leave a review of the following. **

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Meister or Weapon:**

**Type of weapon (if applicable):**

**Personality: **

**Sexual orientation: **

**Let's get cracking people ;)]**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

The demon weapon Icewyre, or 'Ice' as his friends and family had taken to calling him, was running through the dimly lit streets below. He was using his ability to sense souls as a way to regroup with his cousin, Death the Kid. As the two of them were both reapers, it was natural that Lord Death, Kid's father, and head of the DWMA would be interested in testing them both thoroughly.

Ice's loud footsteps would have alerted anyone to his location but it didn't matter as by the time any enemy found the source of the noise he would be long gone from that point. Catching a glimpse of his almost identical family member, Ice stopped and took in the scenery around them. Old cracked buildings. A small river running through an adjacent street. The style; it was all very Italian. He assumed that they must have been in Venice considering the air humidity.

Ice and Kid were dropped from a chopper in a blind mission. This was their true test, it was to see their resourcefulness in a bad situation. Of course Lord Death had also orchestrated some kind of combat relative test. Only the best students in the entire academy were called in for this one. He'd recruited some impressive cases. Mostly three and four star meister's and weapons but there was also a couple of one star fighters in this little scenario. Maka Albarn, that was a name that Ice had never remembered seeing before but to be fair to him, he never really paid much attention anyway.

Maka's weapon of choice was her partner, and highly speculated lover, Soul 'Eater' Evans. Now Soul, Ice knew of, but it would be harder not to have heard about Soul considering his ego and confidence with women was off the charts. Soul was easily one of the most, if not THE most popular guy in the academy.

A few other names on the mission list stuck out to him, but he'd never even spoken to them before. Black*Star, even that name makes me feel sick from the aura of obnoxiousness surrounding it like a thick cloud of poison.

The moment Lord Death's son had made eye contact with his reaper cousin, the ambush was sprung. It was a coliseum of sorts, with meister's jumping down at them from almost every angle. It didn't matter how good THEY were, because Kid was simply too fast for them. He dodged each and every attack that was sent his way. Ice was a little clumsier about it but just as durable as his cousin. They made their way to each other to attempt the Weapon/Meister combination that would allow them to fight back against the seemingly relentless waves of meisters.

A hand outstretched from each side quickly made the connection of soul waves and Ice's body glowed aqua blue before changing into a beautifully symmetrical scythe. The staff of it was made out of the bones of the dead and the large blade protruded gracefully out of an ornamental dragon's head that also served as a blunt hitting weapon. It was a thing of beauty.

"Now you're all boned." Kid smirked before starting his rampage of carnage on the unlucky meisters and weapons all around.

* * *

"Good show you two. A bit unfortunate for some of the others but none the less I am impressed. You can take the rest of the day off and return to your classes tomorrow." Lord Death announced in his ridiculously silly voice. Ice saw fit to speak up at this point.

"Er, uncle? That mission happened yesterday. The travel time from Venice back to Death City means that 'tomorrow' is actually the present. We don't have anymore classes, it's the weekend." Ice pointed out, a small strain appeared on his forehead from the brief moment where Lord Death was the densest thing around.

"Oh, well in that case. I've got another assignment for you. Prepare yourselves for the compatibility pairing tests on Monday. We've got students rolling in from everywhere at the start of next week. Why? I couldn't tell you. But there's a lot of promising weapons and meisters coming in, I've got my eye on a few in particular for you two." Lord Death's mask formed a faint smile before he dismissed the young reapers.

Kid couldn't help but wonder who exactly his father might see as a good partner for someone like him. Sure he was strong, but he also had a lot of differences to other students. Especially his temporary partner, and closest family he had. He trusted his father's judgement above all though and made a mental note to look out for these new arrivals.


	2. Belle

**Soul Eater Fan: Cool, get back to me on that whenever you can, there will be more on Ice and his form in the coming chapters ;)**

**Guest: I'm sorry to hear that, fortunately, it's not going to be too adult as to say it's lemon. And it's not going to be interactive, I'm just giving people the chance to have their OC characters here **

**Special thanks to Justareader10 for the OC 'Belle Hartford'.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"That settles it then!" Kid shouted as he stood up from the table. The two reaper cousins were on their lunch break and decided to pass the time by playing card games.

"Wait, hold up! Best of three?" Ice asked, bringing out his last resort. He knew that Kid would never chance losing his title, not when he had such a decent hold over his cousin. The forfeit was to talk to the new girl that had been appearing in their classes since the beginning of the day. Ice groaned knowing that this wouldn't end well for him. He slowly got up out of his seat at the table where they had been playing cards and walked over to the navy haired girl.

He didn't know her name yet but as he actually looked at her properly for the first time he realized how attractive she was, at least to him. She had a good figure with a pale skin tone accompanied by light freckles dotted around her face and arms. She wore an aqua blue tank top with a darker set of jeans in the same colour only to be topped off with dirty brown coloured military boots that went halfway up her shins. She looked good.

"Hey, can I sit here?" Ice asked her, looking directly into her eyes. It came as a surprise to him when he couldn't look away, it was her eyes, those minty green eyes that had locked him in place. It wore off but not before he had to force himself back into reality.

"You have not food?" She responded. It was more a question of confusion than a statement but Ice decided to go with it.

"A clairvoyant huh? Sorry, I actually just wanted to come over and have a chat. Am I not allowed?" Ice asked, going for the classic misdirection of interest. Kid always laughed when he tried this because nine times out of ten it would work in the opposite way that he wanted it to.

"Wha? Oh! Sorry, yes, of course you are. I'm Belle, pretty new here. First day actually." She went on as Ice sat down next to her, fighting the urge to check her out again.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Belle, my name is…" He trailed off before receiving a smirking glance from his mischievous cousin who was sorting out the cards from their table. It was no secret, reapers had extremely heightened senses, so it was possible that the only one who could hear Ice and Belle's conversation, was Kid.

"Kid. Death the Kid." He said at last, using his resemblance to his cousin as a reason to have a little fun.

"What?" Kid said, looking straight up, a livid expression sourly crossed his face. The cards fell back down to the table. He got a few looks from those around him, probably thinking that he was crazy.

"Death the Kid? Oh no way, so you're Lord Death's son? Wow, that's pretty awesome." She started gazing off at something but Ice didn't want to seem rude so he just changed to subject.

"Yeah it's not bad. So anyway, are you a weapon or a meister, Belle?" Ice gazed over to his previous table where he caught sight of the most deadliest death glare Kid had ever given him.

"Me? I'm a meister. Just like you right? You go for scythes so I hear." Looking at Ice she noticed that he was focused solely on her eyes. She hated to admit it but she loved it when her eyes got her attention. It was one of her guilty pleasures.

"Ugh, no actually, common misconception. I'm actually a scythe, not a scythe meister." Ice smiled, bringing himself away from her mint eyes.

"A scythe. Wow, I've never seen a reaper become an actual scythe before." Her gaze wondered and Ice could see her trying to figure out the beauty that could be a reaper scythe. Kid decided to come over and ruin Ice's fun.

"Hi there. My name is Death the Kid. And that's my COUSIN, Ice." Kid amended Ice's prank and sat down on the other side of the table.

"I am so confused." Belle said plainly.

"He was playing a prank on me. I'm the real son of Lord Death. Ice here is my cousin." Kid continued explaining.

"OK, I get that, but was he lying about the scythe thing?" She asked, sounding a little betrayed. She was probably hoping to see a reaper scythe in action.

"Yes. I'm a meister. HE however is indeed a reaper scythe. Probably the most powerful scythe in this school apart from my father's Death Scythes." Kid continued, taking immense pride in talking about his father.

"All one star meisters and weapons from Professor Stein's classes are to report to the battle arena immediately." The overhead speaker's sounded off.

"Huh, sounds important. Your dad doesn't sound too pleased either." Ice said, looking over to Kid who had the same worried expression. The battle arena? Kid wondered if Lord Death wanted to pit everyone against each other to test compatibility. He'd heard rumour from Spirit that his father was putting a team together but he didn't know why he would go for one star meisters. They got up quickly and made their way there, they didn't want to get on the wrong side of Lord Death so early on in the year.


	3. Compatible

**Chapter 3**

**[A/N: Thanks for all of the continued support guys! **

**Justareader10: Everyone has a guilty pleasure ;P**

**Special thanks to Sco23 for the OC's 'Johnathan Jones' and 'Min Li'. Much love – Don]**

* * *

Everyone had assembled in the battle arena. It turned out that Stein actually taught three different one star classes and they were all present. There were a lot of faces that neither of the reapers recognised.

"As most of you have probably heard, Lord Death is putting a team together. It will consist solely of one star meisters. Well, the ones that prove to be above and beyond the rest. I'd like all of you to split into two separate groups. Meisters, and weapons." Stein said monotonously. His voice never changed. Slowly the three classes converged into two separate groups of people who didn't know each other.

"Your names will be picked out at random. If the instance where Kid and Ice are pitted against each other, new names will be drawn because the last time you two fought you nearly destroyed Death City. Are we clear?" Stein asked, a brief hint of anger glowering through the undertones of his voice. Ice smirked at the memory of destroying his lab on said occasion.

"Yes sir." Both of the reapers replied in unison before everyone else carried on with awaiting the first set of names. They were all divided into two teams that had respective seating areas to properly watch the battle.

"The first battle will be… Maka Albarn versus Johnathan Jones. These are the meisters of the first battle, take your positions at each end of the arena and await your respective weapons." Stein announced. Kid looked on. Maka Albarn. She's a scythe meister just like him. He wasn't solely a scythe meister, he could actually wield anyone that had perfect symmetry.

"Maka, your weapon for today will be. Tsugumi Harudori. You're quite lucky Maka, you're familiar with Tsugumi and her weapon form. Quite lucky indeed. Oh… But not as lucky as mister Jones over here. The draw has revealed that his weapon today will be his own long-time partner, Min Li. This is going to be a match to remember indeed." Stein laughed, lighting up another cigarette and sitting on his chair. Kid knew Tsugumi, she was a Halberd and quite a powerful one at that. Maka's only obstacle in this fight would be adapting herself from scythes over to another similar polearm. It was a tough call but the boys both believed that the new comer might have this one in the bag.

Fighting will his normal weapon he would be at his utmost power. There was something different about this guy. He seemed more at ease when fighting one woman than he was surrounded by all of the other guys in the crowd, he definitely seemed like a ladies man to Ice. He was fairly small for a guy but he had thick muscles lining his mocha skin. He didn't go out to impress when it came to clothes, or at least he didn't try as much as Kid did. He wore plan jeans and sneakers with a top that had the word 'laugh' on it.

* * *

The fight was over and after three rounds, Johnathan Jones had taken the win with his weapon, Min Li. Each fighter shook on it and took their seats. The day wasn't over yet though, there was far more partners to battle it out and neither Kid nor Ice had taken the stage yet. Those two were the battles that everyone would be on edge with though.

"The next two meisters are… Death the Kid!" Stein ruffled around his ticket pile to find another meister. "And Belle Hartford, another newcomer to the DWMA!" Stein announced. Everyone cheered on Kid and Belle looked a bit embarrassed with being pushed into the spotlight on her first day.

"You'll be fine." Ice mouthed over from his group. One of the Thompson sisters was watching the whole thing.

"Well I never. Has a certain reaper become infatuated by the new girl?" Liz asked. Ice put on his best expression of boredom for her.

"Dude. It's her first day and she has to fight Kid. Somebody has to reassure her." He pouted defiantly. Before Liz could respond, Stein began to announce the weapons that would be fighting.

"It seems that Lord Death has a special recommendation for Kid's partner today. That's an honour. Kid your partner will be… Both of the Thompson sisters!? Well, that's something. I'm not sure how you'll pull this one of but what your father says, goes." The crowd went wild. A reaper was going to attempt to wield not one but TWO weapon partners for this match. Nobody really knew what the Thompson sister's weapon forms were either. I think they were all expected dual scythes or something crazy.

"Belle. All I can say is good luck. Belle's weapon for today will be… Oh no. Not again. Icewyre!" Stein announced. Ice stood still for a moment to let it sink in before grinning wildly. He ran out into the arena to fight his cousin, he couldn't wait. It was going to be wild. "I told you it would be fine." Ice laughed as he joined Belle in the arena.

"I know I said that I would re-draw but seeing as how Kid has two weapons and Belle is on her first day, I will allow this fight." Stein walked back over to the preparations area to get ready for the match. Each team as it were, had two minutes to figure out their battle plan before the bell rang, signalling the start of the fight.

"So what's your fighting style?" Ice asked her, begginign their plan.

"Fight true, fight hard and kick their asses." Was al Belle said, with the most innocent smile Ice had ever seen on someone so awesome. All he could do was smile and extend his hand. When she took it he felt a jolt of what was like electricity running through his body, it didn't hurt and he didn't feel the need to back away. Their soul wavelengths were compatible. This would be good. He glowed aqua blue and the very next moment Belle found herself wielding an almost weightless scythe.

The stave was made out of bones all the way up to the hilt which was a shining silver dragon's head. The razor sharp blade protruded out of the dragon's maw which had on show many silver teeth that all looked as sharp as the blade itself. To her, it felt good, it felt natural. She was going to kick the other reaper's light out.

On the other side of the arena Kid and the Thompson sisters were halfway through doing their own talks.

"This is like a dream come true. You're both identical weapons! Easy to handle, very powerful, this will work. We're going to pipe my cousin down for good this time. He held both of his hands out and without anything else needing to be said, the two twins changed form in a blinding purple light. The rest of the crowd went crazy, Kid was holding two very finely detailed guns. As he understood it, those two guns would fire pulses of his own soul wavelength at the enemy. His VERY powerful soul wavelength. When he finally looked over to Kid and Belle he frowned at the sight. They had both adopted a light blue aura.

"They're compatible. Hmm." He said with a small grunt. He was interrupted after a moment though. "Kid, look yourself. So are we, all THREE of us." Liz said in amazement. He looked at the ceiling and noticed from the shining reflection of the ground below that what she said was true. They were all compatible, most likely because of Kid's extreme OCD to symmetry. He had finally done it.

The fight began an all hell broke loose, Kid fired off shots straight away and Belle just swiped Ice at them, reflecting with ease. She handled him like it was moving mere air around. She leapt up high and brought his blade down towards the ground. The sheer impact had cracked the arena ground, sending a small shockwave that sent Kid tumbling from his footing. The fight went on for another twenty minutes before it was decided that it was a draw.

* * *

"That was incredible." Johnathan Jones laughed as the two meisters came back to their group.

"That hurt." Kid complained. He'd gotten hit in the face with Ice's dragon head pretty hard and there was a bruise to show for it.

"Agreed." Belle moaned, rubbing her ribs, she was sure that at least two of them were broken. It wasn't anything that the school nurse couldn't fix with some advanced healing remedies.

"Call me JJ." He said, extending his arm and his friendship. Kid had gotten the impression that it was going to be much more difficult to befriend the new people at the DWMA but it was obvious that some people had not so great backstories and just wanted to get on with their lives. JJ included. Kid accepted the greeting. "Kid, Death the Kid." He walked over to the bench and someone gave him an icepack for his face.

"Belle." Belle laughed shaking JJ's hand and doing the same as Kid. That was enough for one day.


	4. Fun And Games

**Chapter 4**

"All's well that ends well." Ice muttered to himself. Rubbing his battered and bruised limbs. That girl really knew how to handle a scythe.

"It would appear that someone has a new partner." Liz laughed behind him. This time, after their battle, the elder Thompson sister was displaying a much more neutral tone with him, he wasn't used to it.

"Speak for yourself. There's no way Kid is going to let you two go now. I think that why uncle wanted you two to match up with him." Ice responded. The connection that he had with Belle had brought him deeper into the fight than he'd ever gone with Kid. Looking down he noticed that his combat trousers had small holes burnt through them where the shots fired from the Thompson sisters had clearly hit him dead on. He actually didn't mind though as he found a meister that was compatible with him. He'd have to bide his time in making sure that they were paired up more often though. He didn't want to seem too impatient with it.

"To think. A set of new students come in and both of the reaper boys find partners. What do you think Patti?" Liz asked her younger sister. Patti was a bit rough around the edges of her sanity but none the less a nice girl and amazing fighter.

She put on a pair of glasses that made her look incredibly intellectual and looked at both of us with every inch of seriousness. "Giraffe." She said before walking off and throwing the glasses away. Ice had no idea where she got them but it hardly mattered.

"I agree with the fit blonde. Giraffe indeed!" Ice exaggerated, pulling an expression of horror. He was quite the joker and it seemed that he was laid back about it as well. He always managed to make people laugh whether he was trying or not.

"I swear, you must be as crazy as she is sometimes." Liz sighed heavily, shaking her head at the immaturity that was on display before her. Soon after, all of the matches were done and everyone was sent home early.

Kid and Ice lived together in a shared apartment alongside a cat… A very powerful, magical cat. Her name is Blair, everything was cool with Lord Death.

The two reapers, the Thompson sisters, Belle and JJ and Min Li all decided to leave together. Kid was immensely happy with the new friends he'd made that day. Alongside the friendships, he'd also cemented his choice in partners. He would have felt bad for his cousin, if he hadn't done exactly the same thing.

"You're pretty damn lucky Belle." Kid told her randomly. He was starting something that Ice wasn't sure he really wanted to bring up just yet.

"Oh really? How's that?" She asked, a little confused at why he would say that without any indication.

"Well, it's your first day and even though you don't know it yet, you've secured yourself a partner. I've seen that look on Ice's face before. He won't settle for anyone else now that you've used him so well. I'm willing to put money on it that almost every girl in the school is going to be green with envy now." Kid rambled on and even though Belle was listening she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear anymore of it. She was fine with hearing the part about Ice's determination to be her partner, in fact she even smiled on the inside at that part. But hearing how everyone else would be jealous made her think that she'd managed to make an enemy out of every other girl in the school on her first day.

She looked over to where the guy in question was walking alongside everyone. He simply shrugged with a cheesy grin on his face. All of his subtly was out of the question now. For the first time that day she properly saw him in his normal form. He had muscles, there were big and made his skin tightly wrap over them, but they weren't quite as big as JJ's. His normal Icy smile was an attractive sight indeed but again he wasn't so over the top, picture perfect handsome, it was just him. Laidback Ice. His jet black hair was so uniform and differently style to his cousin's, but apart from that you couldn't tell the difference apart from their height and body structure.

Ice's eyes were a sight to see, a shining gold, but according to the amount of times she had caught him staring at hers, they weren't quite as nice.

"Yeah but the same goes for JJ. He's proven to be really strong. He's even beaten Maka. You know exactly how strong she is. It would have been interesting to see her face off with Soul though." Liz added into the conversation. They all agreed. Min Li whispered something into JJ's ear and everyone turned to him quietly.

"She said that we should get her to fight us again WITH Soul. A fairer fight and a better outcome." JJ added with a slight smile. He seemed thrilled by the idea of a completely fair fight where both fighters were at their best, it had just been a long day and everyone was tired out and it was straining his ability to smile for much longer.

The conversation went on for another five or ten minutes before the reapers were disturbed by a Cat flying on a pumpkin.

"Hey boys." It said sweetly before changing into a woman in a tight and revealing black witches costume. Instantly all four women frowned by the sudden lack of attention that they were receiving from the men.

"Blair. What do you want?" Ice asked through gritted teeth, forcing himself to be nice to her. He was always nice to her, mostly because she was so good looking and that he had a crush on her for almost a year.

"The groceries. You numpties forgot to do it. So as a punishment, the last one back has to do them for the next month! See you at the finish line." She blew a kiss and laughed before the pumpkin sped off.

Everyone was watching and waiting with suspense to see what would happen. The two cousin's locked eyes. "Kid?" Ice asked with a small smirk on his face.

"Yes?" Kid responded. Liz noticed that he'd clenched a fist that was hidden from Ice's view. Before anyone could say anything, Ice swiped at Kid but the suited reaper jumped and kicked Ice in the face before running down the immense set of stairs. "Ow." Ice groaned from the ground. He quickly snapped back to his senses.

"That was MY plan!" He shouted, angry that he'd been duped with his own technique.

"Quick, which way did he go?" Everyone pointed towards the stairs instantly.

"AH!" Ice ran straight for the centre of the balcony that overlooked most of the city. The stairs wound down a huge gap in the architecture. The stairs led to the very bottom of the cliff like balcony ledge. "Son of a bi-" Was all they heard before Ice jumped straight over the edge. Watching from the balcony they noticed that Kid was already halfway down the stairs, taking them five at a time. Ice just laughed like a loony as he descended the impressive height. Anyone else would clearly have died upon impact of a drop like this, but reapers were far more durable than reapers. It was a wonder that Kid didn't think of doing the same thing.

Ice landed with a loud thud that they could all hear from the top before rolling and running ahead of the stairs. He had taken the lead and before long they were both out of view of the spectators at the top of the stairs.

"Huh." Belle said in stoic amazement.

"Yeah. That's your partner." JJ laughed in equal wonder.

"I wonder if-" Liz began but was quickly cut off.

"OW! Not again!" They all heard Ice's voice from deeper into the city.


	5. Soul Resonance

**Chapter 5**

Filing into professor Stein's class, Kid and Ice noticed even more new students that they didn't recognize. What was Lord Death up to? "Not so fast you two. We're having a field day today and you're both going to be my example. Or that's the idea anyway." Stein said with a slight smile. Nobody ever knew when it was going to be a positive or a negative with him.

They went out on a two hour journey past the arid desert wastes and into a lush green forest that had a decently large green clearing.

"Today I want to at least show you soul resonance. For this I want Kid and Ice to try and resonate and produce Ice's demon attack." Stein lit a cigarette and propped his back up against a nearby tree before watching from the sidelines. The boys took centre stage but neither of them were very confident in their abilities to perform soul resonance anymore. They hadn't managed it before when they were partners so they saw no reason that it would work now.

"Let's go; SOUL RESONANCE!" They shouted in synchronisation. A strong gust of wind shook the surrounding area but for the life of them they couldn't achieve the resonance.

"Gah what the fuck!?" Ice shouted in frustration. He hated failing with an incredible passion, and deep down, it was actually one of his very few fears.

"Well, well, well. It would appear that you two aren't compatible enough to resonate. Isn't this interesting. Well, fortunately I did notice quite a vibe from your respective partners yesterday in the arena. If they would like to try some resonance?" Stein looked over the groups, having already forgotten who those particular partners were. He knew that there was two of them for Kid but beyond that he couldn't remember.

A navy blue haired girl stepped up immediately. She was wearing a tank top that was in the same style as Ice, just hers was blue. Ice had chosen to go all black that day. "What are we waiting for?" Belle asked at last.

"Yes, it's probably a good idea for Icewyre to attempt the resonation first as Kid will be resonating two weapons at the same time." Stein was on his third cigarette by now. It was a wonder that they hadn't killed him off.

"You ready?" Belle asked him. A challenging tone in her voice. Ice scoffed, almost offended that she even needed to ask. "Am I ready!?" He responded tilting his head, letting the sarcastic overtone take over. She laughed at his humorous reply before they carried on. Ice flashed aqua blue before falling into his partner's hands. Belle felt an air of authority when she came into contact with Ice. It was a lot of power for a single weapon.

"So how are we doing this?" She asked him. She assumed that it was pretty straight-forwards.

"We match our soul wavelengths, then you just do what feel natural. Even without thinking you're most likely going to attempt the Dragon's Fury. So don't be surprised when your instincts kick in. Ready?" He asked her. She nodded, an feeling of determination spreading throughout her body.

"Let's go; SOUL RESONANCE!" They shouted in unison. The sheer power emanating from Belle was astounding, even Stein was a little shocked by it. To those who could perceive souls, it was a true sight to see. Without any warning, Belle began moving. "Dragon's Fury!" She shouted and a moment later the two were engulfed in a fiery whirlwind that grew larger and larger. The fiery tornado of death tore a path through the forest at an incredible rate before dying down.

"Well…" Was all Stein managed to say. A few others were in stunned silence.

"Holy shit." Soul Eater muttered from somewhere near the back of the group. Ice couldn't take it anymore the form was too straining for him after doing Soul resonance. He burst out of his weapon form with beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.

"Huh, took more out of me than I thought it would." He laughed before collapsing down to one of his knees and forced himself to stop before his hands hit the ground. He'd done it, they had successfully done soul resonance.

"The mighty Black Star could have done that! Ahahahaha!" The mouthy blue haired kid shouted out next to Soul but was quickly shut up with a punch to the ribs. Ice was slowly recovering by taking a quick nap on the ground while Kid tried his resonation as well. As to no surprise, it was a raging success. Kid managed to turn Liz and Patti into twin Death Cannons and he blasted a four meter wide trench for one hundred meters along the same ragged and town trail of destruction that Ice had left behind.

"Well, I think we've all learned something here today." Stein began, as he started wrapping up the end of the lessons for the day.

"That Ice is hot?" A random girl in the glass giggled, a few of her girly friends laughed with her. Belle scowled a little bit but quickly amended that.

"That reapers are fucking badass?" Ice panted from the ground.

"I'm not sure about the first one but Ice is definitely right. Lord Death will be happy with your results you two. Next time we come down here, you'll all have to try Soul resonance. And these two reapers are going to be your target practice." Stein laughed.

"Wait, what?" Kid asked, not liking the sound of that.

"You heard the man. 'Reapers are fucking badass' I'm sure you can handle it." Soul Eater gibed at them. Whilst it had proven to be a painful day, it had also been a successful day for all of them.


	6. Boredom

**Chapter 6**

"Let's go; SOUL RESONANCE!" Those words struck Kid as the point in time that he really had to move out of the way. His first couple that would be attacking him were Maka and Soul. He knew about these two. Soul was a pretty powerful scythe as it was but Maka had a whole new story. Her mother was a famous meister that had managed to turn her father into a Death scythe, the same scythe that Lord Death favoured. Kid knew for a fact about Maka's hidden potential, that if done right, there was a multitude of Soul resonance attacks at her disposal.

IF they could resonate then the first move would be the witch hunter but if they done it to an ultimate level then Kid knew that Maka would be able to produce the Genie hunter. If she managed that and hit him with it, the genie hunter would be capable of nearly killing him.

Fortunately, they didn't, they'd probably never even tried to resonate before, and nobody succeeded on their first attempt.

The classes for the rest of the day went well for the young reapers, apart from Ice. He managed to get the few meister and weapons that actually could resonate and as a result, he'd taken a pretty rough beating from it. He brushed it off as nothing whenever Belle was looking though because for some reason and he didn't know why, he just thought that he should be tough in the eyes of his meister.

* * *

"Kid, I'm firing up the grill. Do you want to invite some of the peeps from school over?" Ice asked his cousin. It was a hot day and there was no reason why they shouldn't enjoy it. Ice was sprawled out across the couch watching the tv almost upside down whereas Kid was sat in uniform precision, reading the Death City newspaper for the day.

"That's actually a pretty good idea. You can round up half of them and go get what we'll need for the barbeque." Kid responded, happy that he would have finally gotten his cousin out of his hair for a moment. No doubt he was planning on making their home as symmetrical as possible while he was gone.

"OK. Blair! Come on, we're going shopping." Ice shouted out, unsure as to where their third flatmate was.

"OOOH, SHOPPING!" She squealed. Not quite the reaction that either of them was expecting but after living with her for so long, they shouldn't have expected anything less.

"For a barbeque! Calm yourself. That's an idea though. Kid why don't we take the pool cover down? It's surely going to be hot enough for it." Ice commented, immediately regretting his mistake.

"We have a pool?" Blair looked at him, unsure whether he was serious or not.

"I, ugh, oh yeah. By the way, we have a pool?" Ice shrugged, putting one hand behind his head in embarrassment.

"We've been living together this long, and you never told me we had pool?" Blair almost looked angry.

"Look, I didn't want you getting cat hairs into it. That filter isn't meant for animals. You can go in as long as you look like you do now." Ice reasoned with the hot witch. Blair cheered up instantly.

"Minus all these clothes." She smiled before running off to get her black pumpkin handbag.

"Good recovery. Now when our guests come over, they'll see out flatmate naked in the pool. They'll just love the opportunity to join us." Kid scowled at his cousin. Ice laughed and made his way out of the door.

"Oh, one more thing. Who am I going out to get exactly? We have a lot of people that would love to join us." Ice asked peeking his head back around the corner of the front door. Kid thought to himself about it.

"I guess just everyone from yesterday? I don't really know. Our partners. Whoever else you want to invite I suppose." Kid sighed as he got back to reading his newspaper.

* * *

"So what's with you and this new girl?" Blair asked completely out of the blue, which really shocked Ice.

"Er… What?" He asked plainly. They both kept walking. They lived on the outskirts of the actual town and had a small walk to get to the stores around.

"You and the new girl. You're very, buddy buddy, don't you think? I mean, people have been after you since you started life at the DWMA but you chose her on her first day. That's just a tad strange. Plus, I've seen the way that you look at her." Blair teased him. Ice tensed at that last part. He'd never been accused of anything along those lines and he wasn't sure how to actually deal with it.

"I DENY ANY AND ALL ACUSATIONS AGAINST ME!" He spouted before they finally got to a long street that housed new students.

"Whatever you say." Blair giggled immaturely.

Ice growled at her slightly. "Now, I'm fairly certain that Belle lives in one of these. I'll just give her a call." Ice propped up his phone but when he turned around Blair was flying on a pumpkin that wasn't there a moment ago.

"Oh Belle!" She was shouting out, flying across the roofs of the houses. A few moments later, Belle appeared at the top window of one of the houses. "Ugh, yeah?" She asked, not even knowing that Ice was down in the street below.

"Hiya! I'm Blair, the 'cat lady'. Those silly reapers have invited you to a pool side barbeque. Your Iceman is down there by the way." Blair yelled in excitement. It was a bit much for Belle to take in all at once. She ran a hand through her wavy navy blue hair. "OK then. Let's go." She smiled at last when Ice looked over to her. A few minutes later and they were well on their way to the town.

"Where to first?" Belle asked. Her and Ice were walking at a steady pace whereas Blair had draped her body over the flying pumpkin and was trailing behind in boredom.

"The butchers. We need a decent amount of good quality meat. I suppose there's going to be a few of us." Ice led the way to the town's meat supplier and before long they were well on their way to spending their wages on a single day's events.


	7. Reaper Food

**Chapter 7**

The meister and her weapon, accompanied by the magical cat, managed to navigate their way through the town centre and found a clean and reliable looking butchery. Walking inside, Belle realised that she didn't actually know how much of a difference there was between reapers and humans. The butcher behind the counter gave Ice and knowing glance and pulled out a calculator before they even got to the counter. What was that about? Belle couldn't help but wonder, it did add to her suspicions.

"Hello Roger." Ice greeted the man politely.

"Reaper." Was all the butcher managed as a reply. The man briefly disappeared into the backroom.

"We got a brand new delivery this morning so there should be enough, what will you have?" Roger asked him. Belle simply stood and watched the intermission between them. Blair pulled a shiny looking card out of her purse and slipped it into Ice's pocket. It must have been a magical credit card or something similar.

"It's not our weekly shopping. It's for a barbecue. I'd say, just give me a whole pig." Ice smiled like that sentence was the best thing in the world. "Coming right up." The butcher disappeared once more. Belle stood in front of him and crossed her arms at him. "Seriously? A WHOLE pig?" She asked him.

"Well yeah. Do you have any idea how much reapers eat? It takes a lot to maintain this finely tuned body." Ice joked around, flexing one of his arms to give a representation of just how ripped he was underneath the tank top of his. He didn't exactly need to, she could see just from normally looking at him.

"Show off." She muttered behind him. Her partner might have been a reaper, but that didn't explain the massive ego that he had, at least when he was around her.

"Yeah well. That's just how it goes. We need lots of food to keep going. High metabolisms or something like that? I don't really know but I work it off in my various ways." Ice smirked but quickly wiped it off when he noticed the look that Belle was giving him. "Ugh, inappropriate, sorry." He laughed, recovering it slightly.

Roger the butcher came back into view. "I know what you're like and I can't afford you coming back later on and ordering another one, so I bumped up your order process and also because of your unwavering loyalty to our store, we've decided to give you a boar instead." He waved across the counter and a group of three men came out carrying the largest mammal that Belle had ever seen, it even still had the tusks in.

"Oh sweet, this barbecue is going to be sick as fuck." Ice was being silly again so Belle gave him a quick slap across the back of his head to bring him back into reality. "Huh? Oh yeah, sorry. Thanks Roger, what will that be?" Ice asked. They went through the payment process and the two young DWMA attendees left the store. Ice holding a boar over his shoulder's by the feet, it's tusks scraped against the floor below them due to the sheer size of the animal.

"How the hell can you even carry that thing?" She asked, certain that no human would be able to carry such a beast, but then, he wasn't exactly human.

"With my rather large arms. I swear we literally JUST had this exact conversation?" He asked her. For the first time that day, he stared into her eyes and once again was almost entranced by the beauty of those minty green orbs that were locked onto his golden ones. How could she do that to him, like all the time?

"We did but your ego got in the way." Belle laughed, punching his arm playfully, she almost gasped because of how solid his muscles were. Even though he was carrying the boar and his arms would have been tense, she never expected it to feel like that; she was tempted to just reach out and touch them again, to see if they were even real.

"Ow, thanks for that. Anyway, it's mid-day and only going to get hotter. We'd better round up the others and get that pool filled." Belle had forgotten what he'd told her on the way to town because she was busy watching Blair fly around on her pumpkin.

"The pool? Oh yeah, that's right, it's a pool side barbecue. I've got to go and get my costume! I can meet you back at yours though?" Blair appeared out of nowhere before Ice could reply.

"Ooh, us girlies can find you an amazing one!" Blair rushed Belle onto her pumpkin before she could argue and whisked her away back into the town. Ice shrugged and sighed, that witch was insane. He hefted the boar over towards the twin's apartment to get them before they went back to the flat. No doubt kid would invite some others over as well, their apartment WAS huge after all.

* * *

"AHHH!" Liz screamed when she opened the door to the sight of Ice holding a boar over his shoulders. "Bitch, calm down! It's for the barbecue! The POOLSIDE barbecue, which, HINT, you and Patti are invited to. So shut up, throw on a swimsuit and come on. We haven't got all day. I'm hungry." Ice complained, leaning the boar against a nearby lamppost. Liz gave him an evil glare.

"Are you just going to leave that there?" She asked curiously. Patti had joined her at the door by this point.

Ice couldn't help but laugh, "Liz? Who the fuck is going to steal a giant boar?" He was in stitches and they couldn't figure out why he'd found her perfectly legitimate question so funny.

"How big is your grill?" Patti asked, breaking the sounds of his hysterics. "Big enough. Now come on, we don't have all day. I want to start skinning this bad boy." Ice looked stern once again and they finally agreed before all three of them made their way over to Kid and Ice's house.


	8. Theories

**Chapter 8**

Do you believe in heaven above? Do you believe in love?

Kid sprang up from the newspaper, he'd fallen half asleep writing down lyrics again. "Damn Zeromancer." He cursed himself and got up to answer the doorbell that had clearly deafened him in his surprised state.

"What the hell?" He asked plainly and without much need for question. Once the door was open he saw a flash of Ice's pristinely kept combat boots that blurred past his face and onto the roof.

"What's he doing now?" Kid asked Liz and Patti who were wearing matching swimming consumes. Kid really approved of it.

"He couldn't get your damn food trough the door so he's decided that the best plan of action is to go OVER your house." Patti giggled. It wasn't a half bad idea in the end. Now Ice just had to wait for Belle to get there then she could use him to skin the boar. There was no way he was going to go at it with a kitchen knife and get anywhere.

"Better pull up a chair folks! Woowhee!" Ice shouted from the backside of the house in a southern Texas accent. Kid sighed heavily, "I don't see how-" Kid began but he never got to finish that sentence.

"Hey Kid!? Where's my 'Kiss the cook apron'!?" Ice shouted back through the house. The twins laughed at that part before Kid finally managed to get a word in. "I REALLY don't see how cousins can be so different from one another." He said finally but with a smile. You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family, and at the end of the day, Kid would rather have no other person guarding his back than his cousin. His crazy reaper cousin.

"Oh, so you don't have a 'kiss the cook' apron? Damn it." Liz said, putting on her most serious face and keeping eye contact with Kid the whole time. This sort of interaction was completely new to him and he had no idea with how you should deal with that kind of thing so instead of saying anything and making it any worse, he simply blushed and showed the twins the way through to the back side of the house.

Five minutes later, another knock at the door sounded. Kid looked over to Ice who simply shrugged. He doubted that BLAIR would have been this quick when taking another woman clothes shopping, but nothing was impossible. "It's probably Johnathan then." Kid calmly explained.

"Johnathan? The meister from the arena, the one who beat Maka and Tsugumi?" Ice asked. By this point he had found his apron and also managed to lessen the other clothes he was wearing right down to a single pair of swimming shorts that had a camouflage pattern adorning them. Underneath the apron you could see finely chiselled features on the reaper but no one had ever seen him like the apart form Belle when she had used his scythe form. He had no idea why weapons were naked when in a compatible demon weapon form. Surely it wouldn't matter who wielded them, oh well, Ice didn't make the rules.

"Yes. He's very strong, he may even be able to defeat us with a soul resonance attack. Maybe. Anyway, I've spoken with my father some more about his secret plans and he won't budge with much information but he did admit that he was putting together teams. I know for a fact that, me, Johnathan and Belle are three of five meisters from a group so I've invited JJ over today." Kid's logic was solid. What was Uncle Death doing making teams though?

"You don't think that Lord Death is making another Battle Royale so that he can win his money back from Stein do you? We so nearly won last year, and our defeat was only due to the fact that we had to fight off thirty four pairs of two star meisters all within half an hour. Now that we've both got partners that we're highly compatible with, who could win against us?" Ice actually made a good point but Kid knew that it wasn't because of that. His father had been trying to win his money and pride back from Stein for ages though.

"Hey JJ come on in. Good afternoon Min." Kid greeted both the weapon and the meister and led them through to the pool before carrying on his conversation with Ice.

"If he was trying to win money back then he would have told me. No, he's planning something much bigger. Maybe it is something as simple as games, maybe it's not." He said, sitting down on a deck chair, one of many that the boys had lining their pool that Ice was halfway through cleaning now. The apron look had been put on hold until he actually needed an apron. For now it was just him and the swimming shorts.

"What's this?" JJ asked, immediately taking a seat next to Kid, along with Min doing the same as JJ. In many ways she acted as a body guard for him. Her fierce loyalty was only matched by her strong and silent persona.

"We were just debating the reasons why Lord Death is making teams out of everyone. Ice thinks it's some way to get back at professor Stein." Kid thought that the idea was laughable that his father would stoop that low to regain lost treasures.

"Oh right?" JJ began, he wasn't exactly sure of how the head of the DWMA should act in such a situation so he just decided to progress the situation. "Thanks for inviting us over at any rate. It's nice to have a social interaction that isn't at school." JJ continued. Ice noticed how polite the meister was and in that brief moment between pulling stray bits of pool dirt out, he smiled at the manners of his class mate before getting back to it.

"Has anyone seen my glasses? Where did I put them, oh screw it." Ice moaned. He outstretched his hand and dark blood red sigils appeared from the ground and a second later a pair of badass black sunglasses appeared in his hands.

"Your retrieval spell is locked onto a pair of sunglasses?" Kid asked in almost pure disbelief. That was stupid and reckless even by Ice's standards.

"Pfft, yeah, why not? Reaper has to look cool, you know?" Ice responded, donning his shades and immediately looking like something from an all male swimwear calendar.

"We have very limited magic at our finger tips and you chose to set your lifeline on a pair of sunglasses? Idiot." Kid muttered before getting back to his magazine. Ice gave on a small laugh before retrieving the last pieces of dirt that had clung under the pool cover. He turned on the lights and the filter and it was good to go.

"Liz, can you come here for a second?" He asked the bikini clad blonde. Kid was lucky to have two meisters that were pretty damn attractive. Ice wasn't complaining though, if he had to choose between Belle and the twins, he would go for those mint green pupils any day.

"Yeah?" She asked, appearing at his side, avidly eyeing up the many muscles on show. "Test the water for me." He didn't even ask, he just pushed her by the arm, into the pool. Well worth the death glare he got from his cousin. The doorbell rang out for the final time today. It must have been Blair and Belle. Once everyone was there, they could get on with the cooking.


	9. The Barbecue

**Chapter 9**

Blair and Belle had finally gotten back to the reaper's house. They rung the bell and waited for entry. Belle couldn't help but wonder why Blair didn't have a key. She was a magical cat so there was a good chance that by nature, she didn't like using the front door which was now open. Standing there in front of her was her tall demon weapon. Who was only wearing swimming shorts and sunglasses. Belle hadn't really noticed it before when they were fighting because her mind was always focused on winning, but now that she had time to look, her weapon was incredibly well exercised.

"Oh, you're finally here. Come on, I need your help." Ice smiled, taking Belle by the hand through his huge house and out into the back. When they got there, Belle could see that everyone else had already arrived. Kid stood out immediately, for once not wearing a suit, but instead shorts and a t-shirt, all extremely plain black and thus, symmetrical. The twins were obviously out to please their meister as well as they were wearing matching bikinis. JJ was here, along with Min Li, it was nice to see them out of school. Blair had already somehow managed to strip down to possible THE most revealing swim suit Belle had ever seen in her life.

Taking off the towel that had been wrapped around her waist, Belle showed everyone her costume. It was swimming shorts not dissimilar to those that Ice was wearing, except hers were of a floral pattern with an aqua blue colour, along with a top of the same colour. She walked over to where Ice had pulled her.

"You want me to skin that?" She asked in almost disbelief. WHY did he even buy it in the first place? Oh well, he did say that reapers ate a lot. She held out her arm and the taller man took it and changed into a beautiful but deadly looking scythe. Belle did what felt natural when it came to wielding Ice. Not too long after, the boar was skinned and cut into large chunks that Ice could easily cook on their equally huge grill.

"Thanks, you can do whatever you want now to chill out while this all cooks. Blair?" Ice called out to his flatmate, summoning her from out of the pool. She climbed up, in the most sexy way she possibly could. Min frowned a little bit before going back to sunbathing and not saying another word. It wasn't her business who the reapers chose to share a house with. Belle said nothing, she was begging to get used to Blair's personality by now.

"Condiments? Also, beer please. I don't think anyone else here is eighteen, so yeah, just the one." Ice asked her. She began to magic up the rest of the food and drinks. Belle stormed right over to him.

"Beer? Really?" She looked angry with him. He tried very hard not to make things worse so he simply questioned her inquiry itself instead of being a smartass. "Yeah?" He responded sheepishly. If there was one person he didn't want to get on the wrong side of, it was his meister.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Belle had reassigned her tone towards it, she didn't want to appear at all managing of him, but at the same time she hated the thought of him poisoning his mind.

"A cold beverage is always a good idea at a barbecue meister." Ice responded, taking hold of the magically crafted beer that Blair had handed to him.

"Oh, you wanted it cold?" Blair asked him seriously, tilting her head, misunderstanding human/reaper intentions again, she did it quite often though.

"Yes but it's fine I can chill this myself." He smiled, putting on his shades before holding the beer above his head, paying no attention to it for a few seconds and instead using a metal spatula to score some meat. Belle was perplexed at his movements and intentions with the bottle of alcohol. What was he doing with it? A bright flash seemed to curve inside his hand and once he bought the bottle down Belle could see that it was now freezing in his hand.

"How did you do that?" She asked, forgetting all about her previous anger that he was drinking beer. He'd frozen the bottle with his hand, that was incredible.

"What? Oh that? Erm, well, see Reapers have a little bit of magic here and there where it counts and on top of that, we have small amounts of elemental power as well. My element is ice, as it would appear to be obvious." Ice smirked at his own pun.

"Is that true Kid?" Liz asked from the pool, enjoying the sun glaring down on her glistening skin. Kid leaned forwards slightly. "Yes. I have no idea how Ice managed to branch his powers out into actual elements, because as I believe, and is the case with both my father and myself, it's always been death shadows at our disposal." Kid explained, holding up his hand. A small dark flame briefly flickered before falling out of the sides of his hands and pooling at his feed before it dispersed into nothingness.

"So who wants steak?" Ice laughed from the grill, fat from the boar sizzling up and hitting his apron from time to time. When it came down to it, that man knew how to barbecue meat to a high standard. In no time burgers were made and everyone had eaten. A few minutes later and a few burgers later it seemed that only Kid and Ice were still hungry.

"Oh well, more for us I guess." Kid laughed briefly before getting to work on the rest of the animal along with his cousin, with the others all laughing at their only known weakness... Food.


	10. The Mission

**Chapter 10**

The boys were summoned early Monday morning for a meeting with Lord Death. It was a damp cold morning and moods were at an all-time low for everybody. They couldn't believe that it was only yesterday that they were laughing with friends around a poolside barbecue with such good weather and now they wanted to kill themselves because of it. As the sun gently rose up into the dreary sky, it made eye contact with Ice and without any reason just burst into laughter at him.

Ice growled at the sun's mockery of him, "I swear to Death I'm not afraid of destroying you, you big yellow bastard!" He shouted at the sun. Anyone else would have thought he was crazy but Kid simply thought that they didn't need this today. He could get into a fight with a massive ball of gas another time.

"Ice, not now. Let's just get this meeting over and done with, hopefully my father is going to finally tell us what he's planning." Kid's tone was even more monotonous this morning, he was also feeling down from the sudden change of atmosphere it seemed. Ice grunted and quickly forced his thoughts onto the previous day, sitting around the barbecue in very little clothes and laughing around with his new found friends. He was enjoying the day especially because Belle was there. Why was he thinking of things like this? He didn't know but he didn't really care why either, she was his meister, it would be only natural for him to feel some sort of pleasure from her company, right?

And what of Kid? Ice noticed how he and Liz had exchanged glances throughout the day, he could try and hide it from Ice but if anything was to happen between them, Ice would know straight away, sensing his cousin's deceptions from a mile away.

They were gaining on the Death room and once they were finally there and greeted by Lord Death they sat down and eagerly awaited some answers on his recent plans. "Good morning you two." He said jovially before his tone changed down a little bit. "Now I know that you're both looking for some answers but right now that isn't the most important issue we have. As you've already noticed, we're getting a huge influx of students coming to the DWMA right now. I'm grouping the most prominent members together for an elite fighting class who will be given top of the range training means. I'm sending what's already been formed of this group down to Italy for a very dangerous mission." Lord Death pushed two very stacked folders towards the boys. Mission dossiers.

"Hmm, a witch hunt?" Kid was almost taken aback by the intelligence his father had just supplied them. "No, Kid look, the witch hunt is only a secondary objective. It's a V.I.P collection by the looks of things." Ice informed his cousin. As they continued to study their mission parameters they came across interesting bits of information. It was to be two teams, reaper leaders that would undertake two separate tasks. These teams were all incredibly capable fighters. The teams were currently undecided but it was down to Kid and Ice to determine who's strengths and weaknesses would be better for which objective.

Maka and Soul were the first weapon/meister to pop up on the co-operations list. That was good, Maka was a scythe meister who had some serious potential. Her father, Spirit Albarn was the currently favoured Death Scythe, and her mother was the creator of Genie hunter, it should be assumed that in time Maka will do the same, and possibly even surpass her.

Soul was a pretty powerful scythe that had a few different forms when it came down to it and he NEVER gave up on Maka or a mission. It was a very popular rumour that they were lovers behind closed doors but when you look at Soul, you can't help but get the feeling that he's just too much of a ladies man to be exclusive.

Black*Star, that boy has a mouth that's capable of boring opponents to death. Apart from his obnoxious attitude and loud mouth, Ice knew that Black*Star was in fact a very capable warrior, being able to harness his partner's various weapon forms, and also his own soul wavelength as a means for attack.

Tsugami, Black*Star's demon weapon. Primarily focusing her form on many Japanese sharp fighting weapons, she is a force to be reckoned with, but at the same time, her personality is almost too soft for that of a weapon. They were a strange combination but her tolerance was probably the thing that made them compatible.

Lance Daley, a meister that's new to the academy but already showing incredible potential to progress, and an obvious amount of skill, thus putting him in the Death groups. That was what Ice was calling them now, either the 'Death groups', or the 'Dead Men' but the second one didn't really work as there was more women than men in them. He'd work on it. Lance was at first appearance a quiet guy but after a short amount of time, he had acclimatized himself with the people and the school and was off making friends without any trouble at all. Very little is known about his background.

Zaria Weston. Ice continued reading but it quickly occurred to him. "I know this girl." He said with a frown, analysing the information that was given. "Eh?" Kid asked, off guard.

"Zaria, I know her from a long time ago. She's a sweet girl, has a nice accent. Can hunt anything you can imagine. As far as I'm aware, she didn't have a weapon when I knew her but that could have easily changed between then and now." Ice informed the other two reapers.

Lord Death found that dynamic very interesting. He wondered exactly how Ice's partner would react to another girl, one that Ice knew and was clearly quite close to. Sadly Lord Death was just not in his right to talk to Ice about such matters as he was only his uncle. The thought still stayed though.

There was one more name on the list, a new weapon. Keylion Ligthwing, the same age as Kid and Ice but human. He was very similar in his demon weapon form to Tsubaki, assuming traditional Japanese sharp weapons, but his abilities were far from similar. They would just have to see what this new guy could do. After finishing their meeting, the two reapers had a class that they were late for.

"Last one there has to invite their partner/s for a romantic dinner." Ice laughed as he pushed Kid away from him and belted his way towards Stein's classroom, determined not to be caught out by his own antics for the second time.


	11. Ravens

**Chapter 11 **

**[A/N: Thanks a bunch for all of the input from the community here! I'll try my best to give justification to all of the OC's that made it into the story. Soul Eater Fan: Feel free to PM me any time you want about your OC :)]**

"Liz, Patti, this is quite a dangerous mission, you can guess the severity of the situation if Lord Death is sending out two reaper led teams to take care of it. I'm under the impression that Stein and the death scythe Spirit are also going to be around just in case." Kid frowned. Everyone knew the outline of this mission and what was likely to happen, but whenever a witch hunt came up, they were always edgy. Kid was in charge of a team of new people to the DWMA and wasn't entirely sure how to lead them as he'd never worked with them before.

Kid had himself, Liz and Patti as one combination leading the group of another two. He was leading the main assault against the witches den with Black*Star and Tsubaki forming the brunt of the force. Kid new this to be an excellent idea mainly down to the large destructive force that Black*Star was capable of. The last couple to be gracing his presence was JJ and Min. Those two were a proved unit if only to be fighting on their own. Kid was happy with how the teams had turned out as he wasn't confident with his leadership skills; they were adequate but compared to his cousin's natural prowess for combat tactics and leading teams, he would never surpass, but it didn't bother him.

Kid led his small team to a matt black death-chopper, a raven type heli-carrier that was used for taking in small teams of operatives on stealth missions. The stealth element was futile however as a witch would no doubt sense their large soul wavelengths and make preparations against them anyway. Ice's plan was solid; using the raven's they would maintain a safe height above the target then perform orbital drops, effectively catching the witch shorthanded. It wasn't perfect, but it gave them something as opposed to nothing.

Ice's team was already on board the raven that was set up for them in Rome. They were heading back into Venice, much like the area where Kid and Ice were put in the simulation drill against the three star meisters not too long ago. Had they known that there was a witch operating across the area, then there would no doubt have been a cancellation on the mission.

Ice was taking Maka/Soul, Belle. And the three new students. Piling into the Raven he was met with a strange sight. Maka and Soul were having an in-depth talk about the groundside tactics once they were there. Belle and Zaria were having what appeared to be an in-depth talk about him. It ceased the moment he boarded and gave the two women an odd look. His blue haired meister matched it and challenged him on it, but he quickly gave in whenever her eyes locked onto his because of how attracted he was to them.

Lance and Keylion were talking with one another and as it turned out they were experimenting for this mission and Lance would be using Keylion's extremely varied weapon abilities. "We're lucky to have such an experienced demon weapon on the team. It's not easy being able to handle so many different forms." Ice greeted Ligthwing to their team but it just raised questions.

"What? Weapons can have more than one form?" Belle asked, making her voice heard above the gunning engines as they took off of the ground.

"Of course. The more experienced the weapon, the easier it is. Although there are special exceptions, mainly for weapons of natural power. For instance, I was born a Death Scythe, so my powers will naturally cover any form I choose." Ice explained. The weapon's on board felt a burning jealously over the already existing Death Scythe. He assured them it was down to his reaper nature however.

"So you have more than one form? You're not JUST a scythe?" Belle asked him curiously. She toyed with the idea of experimenting with his different forms to see what worked for him.

"You don't already know? I remember that time you figured out how to form a bow. It was amazing." Zaria's mind seemed to wander and Belle didn't like that one bit. They had already covered exactly how she knew him and such but she still didn't like it. She wasn't his meister or anything either, they were just close friends. She reassured herself of that before moving on.

"A bow?" Maka prompted him. "Yeah, Belle?" He asked. Belle nodded and stood up, holding out her hand. He glowed a bright blue before his form flashed and changed completely. A bow with the bridge being made out of bones that seemed to glow a deep blue in the gaps was what appeared to hold it together, but it was the string that stood out the most, it was made of thick black shadows that never faltered. They flew freely from the top of the bow right down to the bottom and they didn't look taught at all.

"But how do I?" Belle just looked at the magnificent bow in her hands.

"Just pull back." Ice informed her. Belle did as she was told and the moment her hands touched the cold black shadows that lashed into attention and became tight with energy. As she pulled back a demonic shadow arrow literally formed in front of their eyes and rested against the shadow string.

"That is badass." Keylion admitted with a completely deadpan face. No one could see what his true reaction was to it, so they just assumed that it was his true intention. Belle liked this form, a lot. As she withdrew the string, the arrow deformed and the string went slack once again. Ice reformed into his reaper form and they embraced the rest of their journey.


	12. Crona

**Chapter 12**

"Here's the plan!" Ice shouted out, a little hyped up for this mission. He actually looked like he was buzzing because of the adrenaline surging through him. He went silent and everyone looked at him half expectantly.

"Yeah?" Soul asked, prompting Ice to come back to reality. "Kick fucking ass!" Ice shouted out as loud as he could. Kid and the others could hear it all the way from the other raven. Ice shouted out a heavy Texan yell before diving straight out of the open bay doors of their raven, without a parachute or any form of landing device. It was alright for the two reapers because they didn't even need to use their soul wavelengths to soften their landings, they could just land as they saw fit.

Everyone else followed suit and within a half a minute, both teams were firmly on the ground. "Huh." Ice muttered as he looked around. "What is it?" Kid asked, hoping that there wasn't something that Ice had noticed that he hadn't. Ice simply held up his hand and waived the question off before walking a few paces to his left and holding his arms out. Literally a second later Belle fell from the sky, screaming, right into his arms. His bare muscular arms.

"Hey there. Fancy meeting you here." Ice grinned at her. She pulled a face at him before blushing briefly. If he hadn't noticed that she'd not been with him then things may have taken a drastically different turn.

Once Ice had put Belle down, the two cousins exchanged glances and confirmed that their mission was underway. Kid summoned Beelzeboss, his demonic skateboard and Ice used his retrieval magic as well. A second later a pair of awesome sunglasses were resting happily over his eyes. There wasn't any need for them though, as it was night time.

Both teams had divided but ended up at the same church in the city centre; using the meister's and their profound ability to seek souls. Maka was the best they had at it so naturally Ice's team got there first. Kid's team saw this as an opportunity however and decided to go in through the roof as a secondary infiltration team.

"OK, Kid's team are ready on the rooftop to provide support. I'm going in alone. The rest of you, make sure that we're guarded against any counter attacks from the witch. I can feel that she's around here somewhere." Ice proceeded to go towards the door, Belle hot on his heels.

"Ready?" He asked her. She nodded, "Yes. Let's do this, and while we're at it, make it known to the country girl who's a better Scythe meister." Belle smirked, following Ice through those big church doors.

"Did you know that the doors here only open one way?" A quiet voice called out from the alter. It appeared to be the target, except covered in darkness. Ice carried on walking for a few seconds. Belle got a terrible feeling from him. The doors only open one way? What could that mean?

"Screaming resonance." A large shadow was lifted high into the air and sound waves of the highest audible pitch shot forwards and attacked them both. Ice was unphased completely, not even bothering to cup his ears. Belle was on her knees and pissed off. The doors slammed shut.

"Did you know that the doors here only open one way?" The voice repeated itself. They both understood it clearly now. This could have been a trap from the very beginning to see one of the most powerful Death Scythes killed off. It would be progress for any witch, to actively weaken the DWMA. A reaper is a reaper, and with Kid and Ice growing at abnormal rates, once they'd reach full adulthood, they would be as powerful as Lord Death himself.

"Clever. But did you know that the skylights open both ways?" Ice responded flatly.

"Huh?" The quiet boy asked, caught off guard by the response. Glass could be heard breaking above their heads on the higher levels of the church.

"If you break them that is. Hmm, subtle." Ice muttered.

"We've got a situation out here!" Lance shouted, banging on the doors to the church.

"Yeah give me a second! Hey kid, your name is Crona right? We've come to help." Ice reached out but quickly retracted himself to a safe distance once the boys back split open revealing a huge muscular demonic… thing?

"Hey kid! Let ME tell YOU how this is going to go! I'm going to kill you, then eat your soul!" It began laughing maniacally. "Ragnarok, not now." Crona complained. Crona being the purple haired target. It was a safe retrieval mission, but that gigantic demon thing complicated things. Ice grinned and laughed alongside the demon, cutting his bellowing short.

"Hey, what's so funny tough guy!?" It demanded, waving it's fist.

"That you think you can beat me. Show me yours and I'll show you mine." Ice smirked even wider now, extending his arms, challenging the demon. Without saying another word, Ragnarok changed into a huge Viking broadsword. It really was impressive, but not as much as a reaper scythe.

"Excellent. I won't have any trouble dealing with you. Behind, the true power of a demon reaper!" Ice shouted, awaiting Belle's connective touch. It happened and his body changed into that blade of awe. The staff made entirely from bones, the blade tinged a light icy blue colour and protruding from an open silver dragon's head.

"What is he!?" Crona cried out, unsure of how to deal with him.

"A reaper." Ice replied, his voice deep from the power surging around him and his partner. Outside the church, things were really getting heated up. The witch had arrived and was causing all kinds of problems. Kid saw the imminent threat to the remainder of Ice's group however and diverted his team away from the roof tops and back down to the courtyard. Everyone apart from Ice and Belle was engaged in a fight with a masked witch.

A considerable amount of time had gone on with both fights. The witch was incredibly powerful and was just toying with the meister; that being said they hadn't given any ground yet.

"Belle, we're going to have to do Soul resonance." Ice grunted through gritted teeth. He really didn't want to because this was a nice church; a civilian church, and it would be a shame to destroy it. "Are you sure?" She asked him. When it came down to it, he would know best and most times his word would be what went, but this didn't seem like the best plan of action for them.

"He has black blood. We aren't beating him normally." Ice grunted as they both mentally prepared themselves for the Dragon's Fury.


	13. Seeing Reason

**Chapter 13**

* * *

"Come on dummy, kill him so I can eat his soul!" Ragnarok shouted at the timid purple haired guy. Belle could see the complication for Crona; Ragnarok was his blood and there was no way of getting rid of him without being killed off in the process. Poor boy, she hoped that they could help him though, but so far all that was happening was they were fighting on even ground; even with Ice being pumped up so much. Crona was without a doubt, Belle's toughest opponent yet.

"Ice what the hell is he?" She quietly whispered to her weapon before preparing herself for another relentless barrage of attacks. A quiet murmur was all she heard in response before her weapon suddenly shifted form in her hands, one that she had never seen before, it was quite astonishing to Belle to see exactly how advanced her weapon was. She doubted that anyone else knew about it either, especially that Weston girl. She smiled at the thought of being ahead of her. Ahead of her in what? She was going crazy with thoughts like that.

An icy blue short wielded sickle appeared in her hand. The blade itself shone bright except for the lowest edge on it, which seemed to drip with an infinite source of dark blood. "You know what to do." Ice's voice was unusually strained, this form must take a lot out of him, so Belle knew her time was limited with this new power.

Letting her instincts take over and doing what felt natural, she wildly swiped at the air in front of her, and immediately dark red waves of energy shot towards Crona and Ragnarok. The sickle was a ranged weapon of pure soulwaves. Extremely powerful, possibly in the same level as Liz and Patti's gun form.

Crona staggered, that was what Ice was waiting for, and without warning, jumped out of weapon form and grabbed the purple haired teen by the collar of his… Dress? If that was what the appropriate word would be. "Call him off." He whispered, deathly serious. One hand closed around Crona's throat, the other held Ragnarok at bay, but only barely. Luckily for everyone, his bluff worked, and Crona managed to reel in Ragnarok for the time being.

"What do you want from me? I didn't want to hurt all of those people, she made me do it!" He pleaded, it would have been pathetic, except Ice could tell that he'd been through a hell of a lot in his short life.

"I want to help you Crona. I want to take you somewhere that no witch can get you." Ice kneeled, going on an eye level and seemingly taking on a completely different personality, but somehow, he managed to make it work. The teen looked up with a smidgeon of hope glittering in his eyes. "Please Crona, let me help you." This time Ice's hand extended out in a symbol of trust. He was trusting Crona to accept his gesture instead of taking the opportunity to attack him. Ragnarok emerged but he was passive for the moment at hand.

"What's in it for me huh?" He demanded. Ice tilted his head and thought for a moment. "As much candy as you could ever want?" He offered, semi-seriously. "Hah! Like I need any candy!" Ragnarok responded. "Fine, how about my badass shades?" He took them off, revealing his bright golden eyes, shining out in the darkness of the cathedral. "Ooh, gimme! Crona let's go!" Ragnarok was in a world of his own where he was the coolest guy around.

"Well, that worked out nicely. Now let's see about that nasty witch." Ice turned back to his partner who was in a world of her own, fixing her hair. "Come on Belle." He said, taking her hand and bringing her back into the reality at hand.

* * *

"Soul resonance, let's go!" Kid and his two weapons shouted. The other meisters were causing a distraction so that Kid could charge the death cannons and nail the witch with precision. Just then Ice and Belle joined the scene. The witch could see the clear similarities between the two reapers and began searching for his soul. Once she found it a frown snaked its way across her face. Two reapers hunting her? That could be a problem.

"DEATH CANNONS FIRE!" Kid's voice sounded almost demonic but the point was across. Their joint soul resonance attack had been completed while the witch was assessing Ice's soul and it had caught her of guard, effectively forcing her to flee. They'd succeeded with their primary mission.

"Kid, want me to pursue? I can finish her off on my own." Ice asked him quietly. A deep frown emerged on Kid's featured face. Obviously there was something not quite right.

"I don't think you can. Whoever she was, she was extremely powerful. A witch of that calibre doesn't just show up in Italy. Did you discover anything strange about the boy?" The cousins conferred with each other in hushed tones to make sure that not even their weapons and meisters could hear.

"Yes. Black blood, you know what this means don't you?" Icewyre asked his elder cousin.

"Hmm. Medusa." Kid nodded with disgust. That name had been a thorn in his father's side for quite some time. Medusa came from a family of extremely powerful witches, one of which was the reason the academy was created all that time ago.

"We'd better hurry up then." They both agreed and silently called in their ravens as transport. Crona would be riding shotgun with Ice on this one as they made their way back to the DWMA.


	14. The Calm Down

**Chapter 14**

"Damn you shinigami!" The masked man cursed, blocking the path to the sweet shop. It was the weekend and Ice just wanted to have a snack to satisfy his sweet tooth. He'd managed to get himself quite the reputation around Death City what with being so destructive all of the time. And now it was hitting him on the back.

"Dude, I'm just a meister. You have nothing to worry about, the Death line goes right past me and carries on with Kid. My mother didn't have the right of succession." Ice tried to explain. Belle had decided to tag along with him once he mentioned sweets but now she was just confused at everything. They had nearly arrived but were stopped short by this loud man threatening her weapon. She knew full well that Ice could handle himself but that didn't stop her from wanting to knock the man out. She made a mental note to ask Ice about the 'Death line'.

"That hasn't stopped you from causing havoc everywhere!" The man concluded, finally brandishing a weapon of his own. A small knife clearly not intended for the use of combat. Ice managed to suppress his laugh at the puny blade.

"Wanna see mine?" Was all Belle's black haired weapon said. His voice was plagued with a heavy tone of boredom. This must be a regular thing for him to appear so calm. He'd just been threatened yet there was something in his eyes that brightened upon the appearance of a fight. True to the end that this young reaper lived for the fight. Ice's arm extended and flashed a bright blue before that magnificent scythe formed around it. His muscular shoulder turned into the gleaming silver dragon's skull with the blade protruding out of the mouth. It was truly a sight to see. The man screamed in horror before running away, dropping the knife where he'd been standing moments ago.

Chuckling to himself, Ice reverted back to normal and picked up the knife. "Don't want a child getting hold of this. He tensed up his hand that held the small dull blade and a moment later it was frozen solid. He'd intended to make the blade brittle. He walked over to a trash can on the side of the street and smashed the small blade into a thousand tiny crystals of metal and ice before chucking them all in.

"Now, sweets, I'm hungry." Ice smiled at his meister before getting a disproving look. "You know, sometimes I think that you don't take everything entirely seriously?" Belle asked him, only just managing to stay on top of her plethora of long words in that single sentence.

"Yeah I really don't, but hey ho, it's off to the sweet shop we go!" Ice laughed jovially, taking Belle by the arm. She would have complained because only moments ago she was trying to make a serious point to him but now he'd linked arms with her and she liked that. She let him off the hook, just this once.

Once they'd arrived at the shop that Ice frequented, Belle saw her secret enemy wandering around the various cabinets and browsing the sweets among them. Zaria, the only other woman to have stolen Ice's attention over the past few days, just looked around casually, unsure of what she would take a fancy to next.

"Hey look, it's Zaria, let's go say hi." Ice pulled on his meister's arm. She didn't want to but she knew that if she argued, he'd know something was up, so she put on a fake smiled and walked in after him. She found a seat in the shop and began playing idly with her bootlaces. What else was there to do when he was talking to the Weston girl?

A half an hour later and the meister and her weapon left the store. Ice had somehow managed to buy four kilos of sweets. "I'm serious. If you eat all of those you'll die from a blood sugar overdose." Belle warned him. Unsure to how he would take that news. She wasn't even sure if that was true. Those reapers had some incredibly vitality.

"Oh my god!" Ice shouted out immediately. His face as white as a ghost.

"What what is it? A witch? A Kishin!?" Belle asked, alarmed, even more so that Ice at that point. "I forgot my jawbreakers!" He shouted furiously as he bolted back into the shop, coming back out with another kilo box of hard boiled candy balls.

"Sometimes I really can't tell if you're joking or not. I thought that was a serious situation dude!" She said, slightly angry. Hitting him on the arm for good measure. Quite obviously it had no effect on him whatsoever, which surprised Belle as she'd actually hit him pretty hard. How tough is he? She found herself questioning as her mind floated back to the pool day. Her meister was shirtless. There was a barbecue. Her meister was shirtless. There was a swimming pool. And… Her meister was shirtless. Yup, that one was going to stay in her mind for a while. She knew for a fact what kind of body he'd always been hiding under those black vests of his. She was his meister, she saw that same body every time she wielding him in his scythe form.

"Hey look, it's Maka and Soul. Looks like Black*Star is over there as well. Are they playing basketball? Ah dude, this is my sport!" Ice squealed with joy as he happily skipped over to the basketball court where his other teammates were trying to play with uneven teams. Belle sighed with her hands on her hips. Her weapon really was a child at heart.

The rest of the day was spent playing basketball and eating Ice's sweets. Up in the Death room however, Kid and Lord Death were going through the events in Italy. They'd succefully rescued the experiment, but now they knew that they were dealing with Medusa, one of the most powerful witches there ever was. Lord Death was extremely aggravated by the upcoming rise of events but he'd already set a plan in motion to quell the witches. A plan which included two specific reapers.


	15. The Next Big Step

**Chapter 15**

"AHAH! I KNEW IT; THE GREAT ICEWYRE HAS COME TO ADMIT THAT HE'S SECOND BEST TO ME; BLACK*STAR!" The blue haired loudmouth shouted out at the top of his lungs, much like everything else that he had ever said in his entire life.

"Shut up dude." Soul said with a sigh. That was pretty much everything that Soul ever said, along with complaining about things not being cool.

"Yeah seriously. Like I'd ever have to admit that." Ice snorted sarcastically. There was no doubt that Black*Star was extremely strong, but out of the two of them? It would always be a close match.

"HEY! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I COULD EASILY-" Tsubaki got in front of him and slapped her hand across his mouth to shut him up but Ice had already cottoned onto what was going to be said.

"Oh yeah, and what easily could you easily do Blue?" He asked, a challenging look appearing in front of his eyes. The arguing continued and escalated for quite some time. JJ and Min were sitting on a bench overlooking the entire exchange from the hill above the basketball court.

"He's immature." She said all too calmly. JJ considered this before agreeing completely.

"I know. But you can't see his soul like I can. You know why Lord Death asked us specifically. I have a gift. I can see almost everything that he's hiding away. I suspect that only myself, Lord Death and Stein can see this. And THAT is why Lord Death asked us to keep an eye on him." JJ told his weapon.

"It doesn't feel right. Keeping secrets from our team leader." Min argued. She knew WHY Death had asked them to watch out for Ice but she didn't have to like it. She held her honour close to her heart, and THIS wasn't in her interest at all.

"Trust me, if you could see what I could see then you would understand. I don't think even he knows what he's got." JJ reasoned, tilting his head to try and delve even deeper into the rabbit hole that was Ice's soul. The scene below them seemed to break out into a fist fight.

"What kind of chance do we have to succeed with Death's plan with this team?" Min asked, watching Black*Star throw a punch at Ice that caught him with expert speed. It didn't matter who was stronger or faster, what mattered was the determination. This would go on forever, Black*Star had never given up on anything in his entire life and there was no way that Ice would be any different.

"If those two can play nice, hmm. It's not great, but he's a reaper. They, all three of them, are the gods of Death, they just haven't realised it yet." JJ explained.

Down below, Kid and the twins arrived. Kid's face was as clear as day even form the distance, he wasn't in the mood to entertain any of Ice's antics today.

"ICE! Grow up, we've got more important things to attend to today." Kid was really pissed off by the sounds of it. "I like him. He's cute." Min said out of the blue. JJ couldn't believe what he'd just heard. One moment she refused to speak to anyone apart from him the next she's calling a team leader cute. Women.

"In all fairness Kid, Black*Star did start this one." Tsubaki said. Kid frowned before getting on with it. "It doesn't matter. Ice we're needed. We're going solo for this. No partners. Just you and me." Ice frowned. He hated those missions. Two Reapers just on a single mission.

"Ah, fun times. Where and when do we leave?" Ice presented the statement rather than a question.

"Two hours. Get suited, we're going into the witches den. It's going to be tough which is why we need to have full focus and no distractions." Kid didn't like it any more than Ice did. And now above all things, for some reason Lord Death wanted to send two reapers into the witches den as a peaceful contact.

"WHY are we going, and better yet, WHY will I have to NOT kill witches?" Ice asked, drawing out his words so that it became clear on what he wanted to know.

"Because you know what Medusa plans. That isn't in our interests nor the rest of the witches. It's a temporal alliances. Now hurry your ass up." Kid left for the school so that he could get back to the Death room.


	16. Ruby

**Chapter 16**

Lord Death walked through the halls of the academy. It was a normal day for most of the meisters and weapons in his elite groups. They simply had to attend a few classes then call it a day. Except for one minor change. Both Kid and Ice had left early that morning to attend a meeting to console with the witches over the huge threat that Medusa posed on everyone. They were acting on behalf of Lord Death who for obvious reasons could not leave the city.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" The three star meister walking beside Death asked him. He simply looked at her before his mask transformed into a smile.

"Oh course I am Ruby. This is necessary. They all need this right now. I'm sure that we'll have more students come in soon anyway but right now we need you to help out. It's highly likely that they will also cotton onto your real identity, and I'm truly sorry for that if they do but it is a risk that I am willing to take. This IS Medusa that we're dealing with after all, putting a stop to her plans are more important than certain people finding out about you, so do what you must." Death advised her. Knowing for a fact that everyone would soon know about Ruby; Death felt sad that he had to lie to her about it as in fact he planned to tell everyone soon enough. If she was to be a part of the elite groups then they all had to have unrivalled trust in each other.

"I've seen that look before Death." She said; stopping and folding her arms. A small pout crossed her lips as she waited for his reaction. "What look? There's no look, now get to class, I wanted to personally hand you over to Stein." Death laughed, changing the subject with terrible efficiency.

"You were totally planning on telling them anyway weren't you?" She stopped, her hands on her hips now. "Truthfully, yes. But right now you're missing your class. Chop chop." He said, opening a door that led directly to a class filled with students that were all looking directly at them now. The two of them walked in to Stein trying to teach something.

"Professor Stein, we have a new arrival into the elite. I am moving Miss Ruby here into Ice's team. You know the rest. Ruby would you like to introduce yourself to your team mates?" Death asked but before she could answer or decline, he disappeared out of sight.

"So yeah, hi guys. I'm Ruby and I'm a three star meister. Been here since I was nine as well. Quite impressive as well." Everyone looked gobsmacked at what they'd just heard.

"You… You're a three star meister since being nine years old?" Maka uttered unbelieving of what she'd heard.

"It's true Maka. Ruby has a special reason for being put into three star classes though however." Stein informed the. Crona who had been sitting quietly in the class with Ragnarok whispering in his ear. Ragnarok had come to control his size when coming out of Crona.

"You hear that? A three star meister since she started, and at such a young age? Think about this Crona, who else do we know that was straight away three star meisters?" Ragnarok asked him, quiet enough that only Crona could hear him.

"…The reapers?" Crona whispered back completely unsure. Ruby who had been answering questions about herself to the class managed to hear exactly what had been said between Crona and his blackblood companion.

"Professor Stein sir, I've taken way too much of your time talking, we should get back to the lesson." She said, making sure that Stein's teaching would take Crona and Ragnarok away from their current path of thought.

* * *

"Ah dude, no way, check it out!" Ice said, way too excited at the witches posted outside the meeting place. They weren't bothering to sue soul protect as this was a mutual meeting ground.

"I'm almost certain that I know her. It's the Misune sisters. They're all fused into one incredibly powerful witch. Let's not start trouble here Ice, despite whatever may be going through your mind right now." Kid commented, knowing full well what his cousin would be thinking about the lewd outfit on the witches.

"Fine. I'll try to keep my mouth shut. I'm fairly certain that this isn't very fair. Here I am having to wear a full suit and tie complete with glasses, and she's wearing the most revealing outfit I've ever seen on a witch. Unfair dude." Ice kept complaining until they were right up at the gates and standing less than a couple of feet away from two extremely powerful witches.

"You're who they sent? Pathetic. We didn't even bother hiding our souls because we thought that we'd have trouble. Two reapers, you're nothing but a joke." The Misune laughed at the soul waves emanating off of the two reapers.

"It's no lie that for a witch you are very strong. But we're hiding our souls. This is the lowest we can get them." Kid said as he flashed a smile at them. Ice flexed his body a little bit and lifted his restraints that he'd put on himself. His soul wavelength intensified by an incredible amount.

"Yeah, it get's better. So why don't we just carry on with this meeting. I'm hungry as fuck and want to get home." He said casually as they all walked into the hall. When they got inside the plethora of witches with extremely worried looks on their faces was incredible and it was all from Ice lifting the restraint on his soul. Their worried looks were possibly only amounting to the fact that his soul was still recovering from it's high compression.

"What can I say? I'm a god of death, it should be expected." He laughed easily as they both took a seat around a grand table and the mutual discussion began.


	17. The Reapers Return

**Chapter 17**

"Now before we begin, you asked to be given information, just what kind of information are you after?" Ice asked, keeping his eyes on the massive amounts of witches before him. The grand witch was sat at the opposite end of the table and was glaring at the two of them.

"Firstly, how many of our witches have you both killed?" A witch to the side asked, she looked to be fairly high ranking.

"Personally. Thirteen." Kid managed to successfully hide his smile that was threatening to mock the witches as well. It should have been expected, shinigami and witches were sworn enemies.

"And you, death scythe? Oh we've known about your streaks. We've heard about your dark rampages that threaten not only witches and kishins, but anything that gets in your way. Never before has a shinigami been a demon weapon, such a thing will always give you a darker side." The Grand witch explained.

"Me? Forty eight. Like you said, I never needed a witch to become a death scythe, I simply am. How do you know about that?" Ice leaned forwards. Only his brother and Lord Death were supposed to know about Ice's darker side.

"We have some more powerful witches that not even your dark side could have sensed. We've known about you for some time. The piece of information that we want in order to secure this deal is how to stop your dark side. Tell us this and we will collaborate with the DWMA in pursuing Medusa." Another witch said. Those were the rules, and that's exactly what they would need to know.

"In truth, we do not know how to prevent it. We have however made a final decision that if I were to ever become too out of control, that Lord Death himself will be the one to put me down." Ice told them confidently. He didn't really like explaining how his uncle would have to kill him but that was what they wanted to know. Kid shifted uncomfortably in his chair when his cousin had said this. A shinigami dying was one thing as they were immortals, but to be killed at the hands of another shinigami; some things should never happen.

"Hmm, if Lord Death has committed to your citizens that much as to kill his own family, then we trust in his ability to do so. Let us continue with this meeting." The witches then opened up with everything that they knew of Medusa's work and gave the two young reapers a copy of everything, hopefully this would help them learn more of Crona's abilities and how to best keep Ragnarok in line. The meeting finally finished and the boys made their way back to the Academy, it would take them some time however.

00000

Ruby walked through the halls of the academy and spotted a very shy boy dressed all in black. "Hey Crona. I've been meaning to talk to you actually." She greeted him from where she was standing. She understood what his situation was and how scared he must have been when first joining the Academy. Ragnarok took form moments later and began mouthing off. "We know what you are rea-" Ruby's hand was firmly closed around Ragnarok's mouth.

"Finish that sentence and I'll make sure that the black blood is all over the floor." She warned him. Ragnarok mumbled something behind her hand and she cautiously let go.

"Fine! Be that way, we weren't going to tell anyone. I mean, it's pretty obvious that you're waiting for a specific time." Ragnarok told her. It was good enough for her.

"I'm still waiting. How did you figure me out though?" She asked. She had to know what it was.

"Come on, it was obvious when you think about it. A three star meister since you started and at nine years old. Who else do you know that started out as three star meisters?" Crona asked. For the first time that she'd known him, he actually spoke with an air of confidence about him.

"Kid and Ice." She frowned. If it was obvious to Ragnarok then others would no doubt soon figure it out. She had to step up her plans for now then.

"That being said Ice was never given an official star rating. He just sticks around with you guys and Kid." She grumbled.

"What a slacker." Ragnarok mumbled before shutting up when Ruby gave him a death glare.

"Whatever, you should get to class, it's starting now. I'm off to meet Kid and Ice in the city, Lord Death asked me to pick them up." Ruby didn't wait for a response, she just walked off to go and be ready at the meeting point. She wondered exactly how she would break the news to everyone. How would they all react when they found out that Ruby wasn't Ruby?

Kid would freak out completely. She had no idea how Ice would respond, probably not positively. The rest of them had no reason to have any negative reaction otherwise so she hoped for the best.

Walking through the city streets Ruby looked around and realised just how betrayed they would all feel once she had finally told them the truth about her. A feeling she got from her ethereal guns told her that it was something that she had to do though. Her twin pistols extremely similar to Kid's were filled with the souls of the sons of Asura. They were not Kishins and they hated their father as much as everyone else had. While they weren't Kishins, they were direct descendants of Lord Death so were extremely powerful, yet still not Reapers.

"You should tell them." Shadow commented, making himself known from his slumber. Ruby could summon her guns with the little bit of magic that she was able to wield.

"I'm planning on telling them, but not yet. Give me more time." She said slowly as she finally reached the meeting point. She could see the two reapers in the distance heading her ways with a lot of stuff. This was going to be a fun day.


	18. Dusk The Kid

**Chapter 18**

"Who's that?" Kid asked as they noticed a young looking girl who had seemingly been waiting for them. Ice squinted and found the person Kid was looking at.

"I dunno. Friend of yours?" He asked, unsure. Kid frowned then attempted a deeper level of soul perception. Something seemed off about her. He nearly gasped, it was like she was using witch magic to hide her soul. The only people he'd known to be able to do that to such an expert degree was Ice and his father. Professor Stein also had a great efficiency with compressing his soul but not to such a high level.

"No. I've seen her a few times around the upper levels of school but she looks kind of young to be anything above a two star meister don't you think?" Kid put his thoughts aside and kept walking, soon enough they would find out if she was waiting for them or not.

They approached and finally the girl seemed to brighten up. "Hi! I'm Ruby!" She said excitedly. Ice was a little concerned. He'd had enough of the crazy people in this city and she seemed just a little bit too eccentric about meeting the two of them.

"Hi?" He questioned. "Can we help you?" He continued before awaiting a response. Kid remained still, always trying to see her soul.

"Yeah, I'm to make sure that you go straight to Lord Death with the results of your meeting with the witches. You know, because that's all pretty important stuff as it were." She rambled, beginning to get sidetracked.

"Kid, I'll meet you in the Death Room, Belle will hurt me if I don't let her know that I'm back." Ice waved a solemn goodbye before jogging off towards the Academy ahead of kid. Maybe then he would be able to get to Lord Death at the same time as Kid.

"OK then, leave me alone with all of these files why don't you? Say, could you help me carry some of these? They're not heavy it's just a bit of a pain." Kid asked with am embarrassed smile.

"Of course. To the Death Room!" Ruby smiled.

* * *

"Belle? Uh oh, no reply. That probably means that she's angry with me. Er… Miss Hartford? It's the Death City mailing service, we've got a package for you." Ice smirked, putting on his best fake accent. The door to Belle's apartment unlocked but she frowned the moment she saw her weapon standing there.

"Surprise! The mail man ran away as soon as I jumped out of the cake… Which has now mysteriously disappeared. Anyway, I'm back, thought that I should let you know before I go to Lord Death with our findings." Ice explained to her, all the while wondering what he could possibly have done this time.

"Are you hiding anything away from me?" She asked him abruptly, interrupting his witty explanation.

"Why?" He asked slowly, avoiding a direct answer to her question. It was true, he had hid a portion of his nature that he didn't want anyone to see. Naturally Lord Death found out about it due to that damned all seeing mirror of his.

"Because every time we try to resonate I get a burning sensation when I try to reach out to your mind, it's like you're locking certain things away before we fully link." She stood folded arms.

"I guess an explanation is due. You'd better come with me to the Death room then." He said, taking her by the hand and leading her to the Death room so that Lord Death could help him explain things clearer than he could on his own.

* * *

"You summoned us Lord Death?" Maka asked as she and JJ entered the Death room together.

"Haa? Oh yes of course. It seems that a lot of revelations are about to be revealed to your little elite groups and I need your talents to help me with that." He smiled as jovially as ever.

"Our talents?" JJ was confused by this.

"You both have an incredible gift with Soul perception, and with me here, I can project your perception on to other people. I need someone who can't see souls like you do, to see a soul like you can. If that made any sense?" He asked, unsure because he had managed to confuse himself already.

"Ugh yeah, sure. We'll try." JJ confirmed as he took a seat in the Death room and awaiting for their supposed client to arrive so that they could begin whatever crazy task Lord Death had in mind.

* * *

Kid and Ruby were the first ones to arrive. "Ah Kid, I see you've finally returned. What have you found out?" Lord Death asked his son.

"Well a lot of things actually. We've got all of these dossiers of information that the grand witch had kept behind from Medusa. It even includes information on how Crona can keep Ragnarok under control." Kid explained rather excitedly. Nothing like this had ever been found before and a temporary alliances with the witches was even rarer.

"Well done Kid. Ruby, anything to report?" Lord Death turned to the other three star meister in the room.

"I think it's time." She confirmed with him. "I see. In that case, then maybe we should wait for Icewyre." The headmaster told them.

"Wait for me why?" Ice walked in with his blue headed meister in tow. "Well, we're all here now so I guess we should get on with the explanations. Ruby, if you would like to go first as yours will seem the most shocking to us all." Lord Death took a seat on his throne and watched from face to face as the young meister began to explain how things weren't exactly what they appeared to be.

"Aha, well this is a lot tougher than I thought it would be. You see, my name isn't actually Ruby." She began calmly.

"False identity, got it. So what is your real name?"

"Dusk." She said quietly, looking away from the two young reapers.

"Did… Did she just say her name was Dusk?" Ice looked towards his cousin for confirmation that, that was the name that they hadn't heard from in so long.

"Dusk…" Was all Kid managed to say, unbelieving that it was even possible for what was immediately racing through his mind.

"Dusk the Kid. I'm a reaper. Kid, I'm your younger sister." She confirmed. She twirled on her heel for a moment and her appearance immediately changed. "Ah that's better. Such freedom." She smiled and she was a spitting image of her older brother except for the fact that she wore a skirt.

"No shit." Ice said, lost for any other words than that.


End file.
